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Improving my Riding skills
(Reproduced with thanks from the club magazine of the Thames Valley Virago Owners Club)
A couple of months ago Bob and I attended, together with a whole bunch of others, a meeting at the Three Pigeons pub in Thame and were given a very
interesting talk by riding instructor Kevin Williams. During the evening he showed us clips from an motorcycle riding video and discussed various points
of safe riding. From this meeting six of us decided to book up for a training session with him at the end of August.
Bob and I were due to have our session together with Brian from 1pm until 5pm Saturday afternoon – a couple of weeks ago. The day before, the
thought went through my mind that we had about an hours' ride to get there and then followed by 4 hours riding and a further hour ride home was I going
to be up for it (and I'd ridden to Czech and back !). I was almost wondering whether to call it off, especially as we were attending a wedding the day before.
Thankfully as we had chosen the afternoon session, so we didn't have to get up too early. As it was when we arrived at the meeting point and found John
Stevens' sunning himself on the grass, he informed us that Kevin was running a bit late as he'd lost his keys to his van with the bike in earlier that morning
and had to call out the AA to get into the van. Anyway with the extra time we had a drink and bite to eat and chance to relax before the event. Not that I was worried or anything.
Just before 2pm, Arlene, Jan and F F F Pete all arrived back with Kevin having completed their session, with positive remarks about all having learnt a lot from their session. Then it was our turn.
Kevin sat us down and we had a chat about what we wanted to get out of the session together with the areas he wanted us to concentrate on. We were then
equipped with radios and earpieces in order to receive our instructions and off we went. For the first part we took it in turns riding in front so that Kevin
could assess our riding. I was first and for a while I thought there was a problem with the radio, as he wasn't saying anything. Eventually we got to a
junction and he spoke! After a few miles we pulled over and Brian took the lead, followed by Bob. We were then asked to pull up and Kevin gave each of
us a critique on our riding and we discussed what we were looking to gain from the session.
Like a lot of riders, no matter at what stage of your riding career you're at, you know there's always something you could improve on. I felt like I had a
long list ! The most important being, cornering – they still frightened me, also use of brakes and gears particularly whilst cornering and ….. cornering. And also road positioning.
Over the next 3 hours or so we took turns riding in front whilst Kevin gave us instructions and guidance where necessary. Our main objectives were riding
to get maximum visibility on the road, and to be seen by other road users, cornering, keeping a safe distance, assessing the road situation ahead. It was
a very good mix of country and town riding with one session in an empty car park where Kevin demonstrated riding in a straight line with no hands ! That
was the really advanced stuff ! I won't be trying that yet. Counter steering was also explained and I think the penny has eventually dropped as I now find
myself putting it into practise and achieving the desired result. We eventually found ourselves in Oxford town centre where Kevin took the lead and gave an excellent commentary whilst riding.
Although we were out for nearly 4 hours the time just flew by. I thought I'd really struggle and feel exhausted by the end of it of which I didn't. During
the whole time I felt no pressure on my riding and was able very quickly to put a lot of what was demonstrated and discussed into practice. Kevin was an
excellent instructor with loads of patience and the ability to put across exactly what he's looking for. A thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.
I would recommend a session like this for any rider at any level. I'm not sure at this stage in the game whether I'll progress to take my IAM or ROSPA
qualification, but I'd be very happy to do something similar within the next 12 months.
Many thanks Kevin.
Julie Dawson
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